Left-Hand Man

Posted By on 18th July 2015

Any regular viewer of the BBC’s ‘Gardeners’ World’ programme will recognise Nigel, Monty Don’s faithful gardening companion.

At ‘Longmeadow’ Monty Don has Nigel, here at ‘Grassy Bottom’ I have Leonard.

Whilst Nigel is content to lie at a safe distance and chew his favourite ball, Leonard is a harder man to please.

He starts by sitting exactly where I’m trying to dig. First I try shooing him out of the way, when this doesn’t work I try physically lifting him to one side, but Leonard sees this as the prelude to a game, and it normally results in him attacking my elbow.

We then move on to stage three.

When I weed a flower bed, I work from right to left. Trowel in my right hand weeding bucket on my left side.

After the preliminary stages described above Leonard positions himself between me and the bucket, OK until I want to move, at which point he becomes in the way again.

In desperation I resort to standing up, picking up my bucket and walking around him. (He’s a very big cat.) The idea being I move on to the next bit and Leonard is undisturbed.

What does he do? He gets up, walks around me and settles between me and the bucket again!

Finally we reach stage four. Leonard gets bored of gardening and wants to go indoors to sit on my knee, or have something to eat. He has access to food and water 24/7, but prefers the feline version of ‘silver service’ provided by yours truly.

It’s a good job I love him.

Where would I be without my left-hand man?

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